Q. This year it seemed to me that too many
people used their Christmas cards as tools of self-promotion rather than as means of conveying messages of goodwill or celebrating the birth of Christ. My husband and I were among the culprits, I am afraid to say — we also sent out a photograph of our four chil dren and there is really no excuse, except that we did start doing it years ago before other people, and my husband is a photographer. However, I was brought up sharp when I saw our card among a wall of self-promotional cards in the library of a prominent statelyhome-owner's house over New Year. Not one of them even showed Father Christmas, let alone a stable scene. How can we avoid appearing to be among the Godless herd next year, while still using the irresistible opportunity to plug my husband's skills in this tax-deductible way?
Name and address withheld A. It was all very well when only the royals and 5 per cent of others sent 'boast-cards' at Christmas, but the general consensus this year was that when boast-cards start to outnumber conventional messages of goodwill, then the image-conscious must change their camouflage. Next year it would be appropriate for your card to bear a conventional Christian scene on the front with your children's photograph, subtly but carefully captioned, affixed on the inside cover, back-to-back as it were. You can then scrawl exuberant messages of goodwill in handwriting in the normal space provided. It will not matter if these are obscured when the card is jammed into bookshelves, since your carefully captioned self-promotional aid will still be visible.
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